JEHOVAH THE REDEEMER GOD.

I.

JEHOVAH THE PROPER NAME OF THE GOD OF

BY

it

ISRAEL.

tracing a proper name to its origin, and disclosing

the causes which gave it birth, interesting and important results may be attained. The inquirer may find that a name which he had regarded, perhaps, as an arbitrary combination of letters or sounds, is in reality full of significance, and when he views it in its proper relation to the circumstances which attended its development, it may open before him into a picture from antique life, or may be found to contain a memento of some forgotten feud or ancient conquest; or it may be changed into a memorial of the religion of a distant age—of its simple piety and unquestioning faith. Results such as these may be expected, if it is remembered that proper names are often more durable than other words. The forms of a language, in general, like a nation's current coin, may be changed, worn, and deteriorated by the use of successive generations, while proper names of deities, natural objects, and even men, exhibit, with scarcely diminished sharpness, the impress of a remote antiquity.

B

It is not, perhaps, in an Oriental language, such as the Hebrew, that the most strikingly illustrative examples of a distinguishing permanence in proper names would be sought; for the languages, like the manners of the Orientals, are, as compared with those of western nations, less subject to change with the flow of time. Yet it is not difficult to find, in Hebrew, examples of the preservation of archaic forms only in these words; and, as one of these, may be adduced our present subject, the proper name of the God of Israel, JEHOVAH; since the verb from which it is derived had become, apparently, obsolete, even at the period when Genesis received its present form.

This venerable name might thus well deserve attentive consideration as a memorial of the faith of an extremely remote age. It has, however, other claims on our regard than those which it derives from its antiquity. Among these may be mentioned the fact that the first recorded instance of its employment was when Eve had become a mother; the prominence with which it comes forward in sacred history, when the Israelites are about to be delivered from the house of bondage; the feeling of awe with which it was regarded by the later Jews, as being too sacred to be pronounced by mortal lips, and, above all, the fact that the Most High was pleased to distinguish it as His proper name, and to associate it with a glory which He claimed as pre-eminently His own: "I am JEHOVAH, that is My name, and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images." (Isa. xlii. 8.)

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II.

THE NAMES JEHOVAH AND ELOHIM IN THE

PENTATEUCH.

Much attention has been given recently to investigations concerning the origin and significance of the name Jehovah, on account of the manner in which, in the Pentateuch, or at least in Genesis, the names of God are employed. It was observed that in some portions of Genesis the Deity is designated by the name Jehovah (English version, usually, "the LORD,") while in others this name is excluded, and in its stead appears Elohim (English version, "God.") It was seen, moreover, that there are some apparent discrepancies between portions thus distinguished; the same events being referred to different causes, or related in a different manner. As an example may be mentioned the difference with respect to the number of animals which Noah was commanded to bring into the ark, as recorded in the Elohistic section (vi. 9—22) and in the Jehovistic portion (vii. 1—8). In the former we read, "And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female;" but in the latter, "Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female." This difference, which, however, is capable of being very satisfactorily explained, would seem most naturally accounted for, by supposing that we have portions of two narratives of the same events. But, if there are traces of pre-existing documents in Genesis, it would

seem difficult, if not impossible, always to distinguish them. Some evidence of this is afforded by the discrepant opinions which have been expressed with regard to the composition of Genesis.

It is not necessary here even to indicate the successive phases of critical opinion which preceded the rise of the supplement-theory, since this theory seems to have prevailed over all its predecessors. According to this view of the origin of Genesis, two principal documents, or rather a pre-existing document and a supplement, form its basis. The older document is supposed to be distinguished by the use of Elohim, while the writer of the supplementary portions employs Jehovah. With re

spect to the age of the Jehovist, or writer of the supplement, various opinions have been entertained, inasmuch as his work is assigned by some critics to the reign of Solomon, or even a still later period, while others place him in the period of the Judges. It is supposed, moreover, that the Elohim document does not use the divine name Jehovah in Genesis in accordance with a representation which it makes, as contained in Exodus, that the name Jehovah was unknown before the Exode. passage referred to is Exod. vi. 3, "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as El Shaddai, (English version, 'God Almighty,') but with respect to my name Jehovah was I not known unto them." The supplement, it is supposed, in opposition to this statement, represents the patriarchs as employing the name Jehovah.

The

In opposition, however, to any documentary, fragmentary, or supplementary hypothesis, it has been very

ably maintained that Genesis is connected throughout, and that it was composed by one author, Moses, who, in the use of the divine names, was guided by their significance, and the adaptation of each to the passages where they respectively occur, Elohim denoting, as is supposed, the more abstract idea of Deity, but Jehovah, the manifestation of the divine power and perfections, especially to fallen man, by a personal God. This theory, however, notwithstanding the ability with which it has been supported, is rendered improbable by the fanciful hypotheses to which it is necessary to have recourse in order to make out the correspondence between the meaning of the context and the signification of the divine names, and also by its involving an artificial construction of Genesis, altogether at variance with marks of simplicity of style which can scarcely fail to strike the reader.

But though we are compelled to admit the probability of the documentary origin of Genesis, yet this admission is quite consistent with the belief that Moses, acting under the influence of the Divine Spirit, edited ancient memorials, or made such extracts from them as were necessary for the instruction of the church through all ages; and to such editorship may be ascribed the general unity of purpose which, it may be readily admitted, pervades the book.

It will probably have been seen from what has been already said, that our present subject is closely connected with that of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. The decision at which we arrive with regard to the meaning of the Divine name Jehovah, and the age in